UPDATE: I just realized that I never posted THIS. Which is a thrilling profile of David Bazan, featuring excellent perspective from David Dark.
Today, thanks to Paste Magazine, you can listen to some of the most provocative songwriting about faith and doubt I’ve heard since Leslie “Sam” Phillips The Turning back in 1987.
So beautiful.
On another note, if you haven’t seen it, Bazan is on this track on the Come O Spirit! Vol I record. Listen here:
http://www.last.fm/music/Bifrost+Arts/_/Hard+Times?autostart
Thanks for the link… a beautiful album. Very powerful, thought provoking, and incredibly sad. My heart weeps listening to this collection of songs, and I am left praying that the prodigal once again returns. Doubt can be refining- if it doesn’t kill you.
I agree with Criss’ sentiments.
Here’s a song with some good depth off the new Jars of Clay album:
As a life long fan of Pedro the Lion, I am saddened about the way Christians treat this man.
It’s almost as if he is an animal that we are curious to poke through the bars.
Regrettably he doesn’t seem to mind taking that role and leaving us to ours.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-passion-of-david-bazan/Content?oid=1169181
I almost feel as if Christians pay him to say what we can’t or won’t.
I’m feeling very conflicted as to how to approach his art because of this.
While I agree with you on one hand, WoundUnwound, I think there’s another way to look at what’s going with Bazan (and others who run from God when faced with Christian judgmentalism). If you look at our perfect example, what was Jesus’ response when he was persecuted and wronged and legalism was tossed in his face? Did he run AWAY FROM God or did he run TO God? We all face all kinds of storms, whether Christian judgmentalism, cancer cells storming our body or people flying jets into buildings. It’s our response to such storms that is important. When they come, what God wants from us is to run TO Him, not AWAY from Him. What I get out of the very nicely written article you shared was that Bazan, when faced with things that caused him trouble and caused him to doubt, ran away from God. In fact, it’s quite clear what he DID run to, and that’s the bottle.
I have a recent example of my own. Just this past Sunday, my pastor gave what I thought was one of the worst sermons I’ve ever heard. It was bully-pulpit at its best, full of “you as a congregation aren’t doing enough, where’s your sacrifice, where are your works.” He went as far as to basically say “just getting involved isn’t enough, you should be LEADING.” I was offended on many levels, perhaps the greatest being me wanting to shout to him “show me YOUR sacrifice and maybe you have some moral high ground from which to chastise us.” It was the kind of thing that a person could point to and say “Gee, why would I want to follow THAT pastor’s God?” It raises doubts about God simply because it makes one wonder about the motives and mindset of Christians in general, and PASTORS to boot.
Okay, so my pastor had a horrible message that offended me. Does God want me to run away from Him because of a pastor’s crappy message loaded with guilt and judgmentalism? Does God want us to run from Him when we face Christian judgmentalism? Yes, we can find fault with Christians for the way we treat each other and our uncanny ability to accuse and point and judge, but isn’t it our response which is critical and all that God cares about?
I guess what I’m getting at is that I feel awful for whatever Bazan has suffered at the hands of fellow Christians. I feel awful that he felt he needed to run to the bottle instead of God. I feel awful whenever I hear people say they don’t believe any longer because Christians are hypocritical and judgmental. Yes, we all bear some responsibility for failing to love with total grace, and for hurting other Christians to the point they might doubt and consider turning away from God’s truth. But doesn’t the ultimate responsibility and decision to run from God reside with them? Yes, I could point at my pastor and say, “That’s it. I’m done with God. And it’s all because of you and your offensive sermon.” But I think it would be a bit unfair if I put all the responsibility for my doubts and falling-away on him. Sure, maybe he had a role to play in my doubting, but the decision and response is all mine.
Again, I’ll point to Jesus’ response to the same things Bazan suffered. He did not turn away from God. That’s why I really really liked the way Criss stated it: “My heart weeps listening to this collection of songs, and I am left praying that the prodigal once again returns.” Jesus weeps for this lost sheep. I know He’s searching for him, and I even get the sense Bazan isn’t totally done with his own search. I hope and pray they find each other again.
I just updated the post to include a link to the Chicago Reader article, in which David Dark lends some very helpful perspective…
You may also want to read this very frank 4 part interview at emusic.
http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2009_200908-qa-bazan.html
PS – Should be probably add a offensive language warning!
Wow. Thanks, LRE. That’s an incredible interview on so many levels. My opinion…Christians shouldn’t be offended or afraid of people like this, but should want to converse with them. Wouldn’t you just LOVE to spend an evening talking to someone like this, who would not only challenge your beliefs, but maybe be challenged by your beliefs in return?
Seems to me Bazan is still running towards God, or he wouldn’t be addressing him so much in his songs. It’s just that he’s throwing his doubts and frustrations at him in stead of praise. But that’s what happens in most of the psalms. I wouldn’t want to call “turning to the bottle” the same as “turning away from God”. Thank God we can still turn to him even if we make some bad choices.
That said, I do have a hard time listening to his (more recent) records because they are so full of pain. I still admire Bazan’s honesty though.
You may also want to read this very frank 4 part interview at emusic.
http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2009_200908-qa-bazan.html
PS – Should be probably add a offensive language warning!…